Monday, July 6, 1998 Last modified at 12:34 a.m. on Monday, July 6, 1998

Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr meets with reporters outside his home in McLean, Va., Tuesday, June 16, 1998. After publication of an article on Starr's contacts with reporters, a federal judge summoned key lawyers for an unusual evening proceeding Monday behind closed doors. AP PhotoStarr to skip update of his Clinton probe

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Special prosecutor Kenneth Starr won't deliver an interim report to Congress on his investigation of President Clinton, even if he isn't finished by the time lawmakers leave this fall, Starr's spokesman said Sunday.

Spokesman Charles Bakaly said Starr will report to the House of Representatives only if and when he has ''substantial and credible information'' about possible crimes by the president.

The ''substantial and credible'' formulation is included in the independent counsel law under which Starr was appointed.

''There is no timing element to it or requirement,'' Bakaly said on NBC's ''Meet the Press.'' ''Our job is to gather the evidence, assess the evidence. If that standard is reached, we're going to send it up to the House of Representatives ... because they are the ones who, under the Constitution, have a duty to see what to do next.''

Bakaly said there will be no partial report, which he indicated last month was an option under consideration. He said on CNN's ''Late Edition'' that he didn't know when Starr decided not to issue an interim report.

In June, several congressional Republicans said they didn't want an interim report. All 435 House members and one-third of the 100-member Senate are up for re-election in November, and lawmakers hope to recess early this fall to return to their districts for campaigning.

''I don't want to see him give us a half-baked report,'' House Appropriations Committee chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., said last month. ''A complete report is what we want.''

Starr has suffered several legal setbacks in recent weeks on aspects of his investigation. The most recent was U.S. District Judge James Robertson's dismissal last week of tax-evasion charges brought against presidential friend Webster Hubbell. Robertson, who earlier characterized some of the views of Starr's prosecutors as ''scary,'' ruled that Hubbell's indictment resulted from ''a quintessential fishing expedition'' and violated his constitutional right not to incriminate himself.

Robertson's decision ''confirms this growing sense of alarm that Ken Starr is a runaway prosecutor,'' former White House counsel Jane Sherburne said on ABC's ''This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts.''

Democrats have been using attacks on Starr to raise money for the party, including a letter sent to potential contributors by consultant James Carville. The letter called Starr ''as objective as the Spanish Inquisition.''